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Now you see it. The AK-MCHC built and sporting a floating hard disk
It's all smoke and mirrors, the hard disk isn't really floating
The power supply needs a bit of helpful support
The power and reset buttons are spoiled by a bland brown PCB
USB, headphone and mic sockets
An extensive box of bits, but don't enjoy yourself too much with the cotton gloves

Ok I admit it. I have toyed with the idea of purchasing a ‘see-through’ PC case, but I’ve yet to part with any money because I am not entirely convinced. I can understand the appeal for trade shows so that all and sundry can see what’s going on inside, but why would I want one? Is it nerdish or simply a desire to be different? Maybe there are some practical reasons for going transparent? To find out, I’ve taken a closer look at one of Akasa’s custom build micro ATX cases, the AK-MCHC.

The shipping box contained a total of eight clear acrylic panels all neatly protected with bubble wrap. But one minute, doesn’t a box have six sides? Well yes but rather than drill a series of holes through the outer panels for securing your drives, two smaller panels are mounted inside and together form the drive bays. Unlike many ATX cases, the two external 5.25in drive bays are located at the bottom of the unit, so before ejecting a CD make sure you know where you put that hot cup of coffee. Two 3.5in external bays and a further four internal 3.5in ones complete the bay array .

Putting the case together took me back to my old Meccano days, where a set of minimalist instructions with simple diagrams and pictures left you relying on common sense and a certain degree of trial and error to get everything right. For instance, the base panel looks symmetrical from both sides, but its orientation is critical as I found out when the bolts failed to line up with the rear panels’ holes. Flip it round and all is well. In order to protect the acrylic panels from smeary fingerprints a pair of white cotton gloves have been thrown in, which I must say look rather dapper. It wasn’t long before I was miming like Marcel Marceau, but they soon came off after I found that I couldn’t pick up small screws with them on.

It was good to see that all the necessary assembly parts are supplied including bolts and screws for either securing the panels to one another, or for fixing eight centimetre chassis fans to the front and top, and a six centimetre one to the back. You also get what are termed ‘standoffs’ that screw into the side of your drives, and are then secured between the two panels that form the drive bays, as mentioned earlier. This gives the drives a somewhat ‘floating’ appearance inside the case. Helpfully, Akasa has inserted a small label inside each bag of bits for easy identification.

Additionally, an internal speaker is bundled along with a PCB carrying two USB ports plus headphone and microphone jacks. The latter doesn’t fit too well in the front of the case. In fact, the soldered points under the PCB hit the base panel, whereas the PCB itself bows when the fixing screws are only slightly tightened. A second PCB carries chrome-coloured power and reset switches along with the typical power and hard drive activity LEDs. At the rear, the four blanking plates are of the standard screw-in type and interestingly the PSU is screwed in at the bottom of the case, supported by a small circular acrylic foot.

There are a couple of aspects that I found irritating. First, the side panels. Once you’ve fitted all your components it takes a total of 16 bolts to secure them into place. So if you regularly upgrade, or just like quick access to your PC’s innards then this case isn’t really for you - unless you use just a couple of bolts to fasten each in place. Second, the self-adhesive rubber feet. After fitting these, the case didn’t sit evenly on my desk.

Practically, however, the transparent walls do have some advantages. For a start, you can see what you’re doing inside – a boon if you’re looking for those inconspicuous chip serial numbers for more specific driver searches. You can also monitor the build up of dust and fluff on your fans and hardware. Conversely, you may want to weigh these pros against the fact that acrylic is prone to scratches and if its rubbed with a dry cloth it can become positively charged which raises questions for your static sensitive hardware.

Basically what you’ve got here is a case that takes twice as long to build as it does to construct a PC inside it, and if you want to upgrade your components you’ll have to completely deconstruct the case first. If you can live with all these construction and deconstruction issues and have some good looking components you might be interested in a case like this.

Verdict

All in all, I’m left with the feeling that the majority of my standard components will look rather drab inside this case, and to be honest I don’t really want to show them off. Of course you can take things further and fit all manner of lights, luminous fans, and what have you, but personally, I’d prefer to spend £80 on a good quality ‘opaque’ case.

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